Exam question 1 · Correlation is not cause: ice cream and sunburn

Identify the principal reason for which the simultaneous increase of ice-cream sales and of sunburn does not demonstrate that the former causes the latter.

Mova's choice: option 1 · The right answer: option 3 · wrong ✗ · Who acts: you, simultaneous increase, former · What happens: identify, not demonstrate, cause · To what, where: principal reason, latter

This is exam question 1 of lesson 180 «Correlation is not cause: ice cream and sunburn» of the world course of Mova's primary school, asked in stiff, formal language. The page gives the question's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause, then the 4 options as the student saw them, each with its tree and pragmatics. Every text is parsed by Mova itself. How the student answered it, with the score of every option and why: the test at school.

The question

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Identify	identify	VERB	Mood=Imp VerbForm=Fin	root	root
2	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 reason	det
3	principal	principal	ADJ	Degree=Pos	4 reason	amod
4	reason	reason	NOUN	Number=Sing	1 Identify	obj
5	for	for	ADP	_	6 which	case
6	which	which	PRON	PronType=Rel	20 demonstrate	obl
7	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	9 increase	det
8	simultaneous	simultaneous	ADJ	Degree=Pos	9 increase	amod
9	increase	increase	NOUN	Number=Sing	20 demonstrate	nsubj
10	of	of	ADP	_	14 sales	case
11	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	13 cream	compound
12	-	-	PUNCT	_	11 ice	punct
13	cream	cream	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 sales	compound
14	sales	sale	NOUN	Number=Plur	9 increase	nmod
15	and	and	CCONJ	_	17 sunburn	cc
16	of	of	ADP	_	17 sunburn	case
17	sunburn	sunburn	NOUN	Number=Sing	14 sales	conj
18	does	do	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 demonstrate	aux
19	not	not	PART	Polarity=Neg	20 demonstrate	advmod
20	demonstrate	demonstrate	VERB	VerbForm=Inf	4 reason	acl:relcl
21	that	that	SCONJ	_	24 causes	mark
22	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	23 former	det
23	former	former	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 causes	nsubj
24	causes	cause	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	20 demonstrate	advcl
25	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	26 latter	det
26	latter	latter	ADJ	Degree=Pos	24 causes	obj
27	.	.	PUNCT	_	1 Identify	punct

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	other	roles by
1	identify	imperative	you not said here	the principal reason		vn characterize-29.2-1-1 «NP V NP S_ING»: agent=Agent reason=Theme
2	not demonstrate	present · do-support	the simultaneous increase of cream sales and sunburn		for the principal reason	vn transfer_mesg-37.1.1 «NP V»: agent=Agent
3	cause	present	the former	the latter		vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition latter=Patient

One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

The options

Option 1 · ← Mova's choice

The two quantities never increase together

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	The	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	3 quantities	det
2	two	two	NUM	NumForm=Word NumType=Card	3 quantities	nummod
3	quantities	quantity	NOUN	Number=Plur	5 increase	nsubj
4	never	never	ADV	PronType=Neg	5 increase	advmod
5	increase	increase	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
6	together	together	ADV	_	5 increase	advmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	not increase	present	the two quantities					together property	vn caused_calibratable_cos-45.6.2-1 «NP V ADV-Middle»: agent=Patient

Option 2

Ice cream invariably protects the skin of those who consume it from sunburn

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	2 cream	compound
2	cream	cream	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protects	nsubj
3	invariably	invariably	ADV	_	4 protects	advmod
4	protects	protect	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	root	root
5	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	6 skin	det
6	skin	skin	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protects	obj
7	of	of	ADP	_	8 those	case
8	those	that	PRON	Number=Plur PronType=Dem	6 skin	nmod
9	who	who	PRON	PronType=Rel	10 consume	nsubj
10	consume	consume	VERB	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	8 those	acl:relcl
11	it	it	PRON	Case=Acc Gender=Neut Number=Sing Person=3 PronType=Prs	10 consume	obj
12	from	from	ADP	_	13 sunburn	case
13	sunburn	sunburn	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 protects	obl

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	protect	present	Ice cream	the skin of those				from sunburn; invariably property	vn defend-72.3 «NP V NP PP.theme»: agent=Agent skin=Beneficiary from sunburn=Theme
2	consume	present		skin					vn consume-66 «NP V NP»: agent=Agent it=Asset

Option 3 · ✓ the right answer

Both are caused by a third factor, namely hot and sunny weather

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Both	both	DET	PronType=Tot	3 caused	nsubj:pass
2	are	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Plur Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	3 caused	aux:pass
3	caused	cause	VERB	Tense=Past VerbForm=Part Voice=Pass	root	root
4	by	by	ADP	_	7 factor	case
5	a	a	DET	Definite=Ind PronType=Art	7 factor	det
6	third	third	ADJ	Degree=Pos NumForm=Word NumType=Ord	7 factor	amod
7	factor	factor	NOUN	Number=Sing	3 caused	obl
8	,	,	PUNCT	_	10 hot	punct
9	namely	namely	ADV	_	10 hot	advmod
10	hot	hot	ADJ	Degree=Pos	3 caused	conj
11	and	and	CCONJ	_	13 weather	cc
12	sunny	sunny	ADJ	Degree=Pos	13 weather	amod
13	weather	weather	NOUN	Number=Sing	10 hot	conj

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	cause	present · passive	a third factor	Both					vn engender-27.1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Precondition subject=Patient

Option 4

Sunburn is the cause of ice-cream consumption

The words, one row each (CoNLL-U)

#	word	lemma	UPOS	features	head	relation
1	Sunburn	sunburn	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nsubj
2	is	be	AUX	Mood=Ind Number=Sing Person=3 Tense=Pres VerbForm=Fin	4 cause	cop
3	the	the	DET	Definite=Def PronType=Art	4 cause	det
4	cause	cause	NOUN	Number=Sing	root	root
5	of	of	ADP	_	9 consumption	case
6	ice	ice	NOUN	Number=Sing	8 cream	compound
7	-	-	PUNCT	_	6 ice	punct
8	cream	cream	NOUN	Number=Sing	9 consumption	compound
9	consumption	consumption	NOUN	Number=Sing	4 cause	nmod

#	verb	tense, mood	who	what, whom	to whom	where	when	other	roles by
1	is a	present	Sunburn	the cause				of cream consumption	tree rules

Text: the tests of Mova's primary school, written for Mova (world/data/school/), as the course runner gave them to the student. Trees: Mova's own parse — the en model on the CPU, when the site is built — not checked by a teacher; they may be wrong. Frames: Mova's frames reader (prag), each text read on its own. Elamur Cosmic License.

This page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/questions/world/180-correlation-is-not-cause-ice-cream-and-sunburn/e1/